Okay here is the thing. My husband has two tax leins listed on his credit reports for different amounts filed at different times one in 4/2000 and the other in 4/2001 but in different counties. We lived in the same county the whole time so I don't understand how a county we didn't live in can file a lein or does it matter since it is a State tax lein? the one filed in 2000 is for 1055.00 which I have never paid and didn't even know about until I got my credit reports but the court house is saying that it is paid and sent me papers stating that is was satisfied so that I can file with the court house and the CRAs but how can they show it paid when my husband or I neither one paid this item which by the way I am glad they are showing it paid but how do I know this is mine without stirring up things and maybe being worse off for it. The other one is filed in another county and is for $927 and is listed on both my husband and I's CRA where as the $1055 is only listed on my husbands. Also Experian is reporting these items as a civil claim judgement instead of a tax lein. What is the difference and is this to my advantage? My question is what is my course of action to get this off our Credit Reports? Can anyone lend some advice? Thank you, Andra
see my posts today, though I am not sure it will apply in your case. I am a bit confused by your situation. I'm also not much of an expert.
Bump! Does anyone know where I can find more information on state tax leins and where they are to be filed? Thanks, Andra
Be sure to post again after you receive the records and see exactly what you're dealing with. My experience with liens is they are among the tougher of credit problems to deal with, but you CAN get rid of them. Sometimes it's just a matter of disputing multiple times until something falls through the cracks and they are deleted. You've probably seen this already, but just in case...DON'T SEND ANYTHING YOU RECEIVE FROM THE COURTS TO THE CRAs. We did and it was a huge error. A paid lien seems to be as detrimental to the score as an unpaid one. Once you know exactly what the courts have it will be a lot easier for folks here to assist. Please leep us posted. DemPooches
Re: Tax lien reported differently andra | 18 posts since Feb 2002 63.82.222.199 | 08.01.2002 @ 11:42 bump Double bump POST
Okay I called the Tax Leins Department In Topeka yesterday because that is who the courts told me to call. Anyway, he explained that the lein for 1055.00 filed in 4/2000 was our state taxes for 95 and 96. the lein for 927.00 filed in 4/2001 is our taxes for 97. They took the refunds that we would have received in 98and 99 and applied them to the 1055.00 which in turn paid it off and satisfied the lein which is why they said it was paid. The 927.00 is still owing and we live in a different state now. He had copies of our tax returns for all those years with our signatures on them and I asked them to send them to me. I have them but I wanted them to produce them. The reason the 927.00 lein was filed in a different county was because we now live out of state and they file all their leins for people out of state in that county. They sent me a letter stating that the 1055.00 lein was satisfied and said I needed to file it with the court house or it would not show as being satisfied. Should I do this or will this hurt my chances of having it deleted? Also Experian is reporting these leins as civil claim judgements instead of leins. Is this to my advantage? Leins can stay on indefinitely if they are unpaid ( Is this correct?) but what about civil claim judgements? Is there any hope of getting these deleted and If so what is my next step? I have not disputed these as not mine yet but I suspect they would be validated if they have the signed return. Any help would be appreciated, Andra
Andra, I'm on the way out the door but will post again about this later to give you some suggestions if someone else hasn't already. One thought...if you have the money (or can get it) to pay off the lien which is still owed. You could call the guy back who you spoke to yesterday and tell him you'd love to go ahead and get a loan to pay off the lien you still owe but that the liens have so damaged your credit that you can't even get a credit card at this point. Ask him if it would be possible for his office to withdraw the notice of the liens from the courthouse so that you would be able to obtain the credit necessary to pay it off. (You can even volunteer to him that they know you'll pay because if you don't they'd just put the lien right back on there.) If he does agree, ask him to send you a copy of the letter that goes out so that you'll be able to show it to potential lenders. (and CRAs!!!) I realize this is a long shot. But if you've got a contact that seems helpful, I don't think it could hurt to ask. Who knows, they may be interested enough in collecting sooner rather than later that they may help you. Will post more later. DemPooches
Something I never understood: Seems that they would rather trash your credit so that you can't get a loan to pay them with then bitch about not getting paid instead of assisting you in seeing that they get paid. My take on this is whenever someone interferes with my ability to pay them the debt is canceled.
I'm going to share some of my experiences in dealing with state tax liens, but unlike some other types of credit repair I've worked on, there seem to be no hard and fast rules in dealing with liens. (OTHER THAN THE ONE YOU KNOW ALREADY - "DON'T SEND INFO TO THE CRAs SHOWING THE LIEN HAS BEEN SATISFIED.") But remember, I'm giving you my experiences and my opinions based on them. We started out with 3 state tax liens on TU and EX and 2 on EQ. We discovered them 2 years ago, paid them immediately and thought our credit picture would improve by them being shown as "paid." So, we faxed the forms we got from the courthouse to each of the 3 CRAs to show they were paid. Yep, we self-verified all of them. It never even occured to us to contact the state Dept of Revenue to see if they might withdraw them if we paid them right away. If we had it to do over again, that would be our very first step. In December of last year, after discovering Creditnet, we began trying to clean up the lien mess. (We were posting under a different name then - but that's another story.) We first tried disputing all of them at once as "not mine." The one that was only reporting on EX and TU disappeared (it had some weird business-related info on it that the others didn't so that may be why). So now all three reports had 2 each. At this time, we discovered that at least for TU, maybe for the other CRAs as well, the only thing they do to verify a "not mine" is to get the name and SS# from the creditor. If the creditor has that info, it's enough to verify. We decided it might be attracting too much attention at the courthouse if we continued to dispute everything at once, so we started just disputing one at a time. There were a few inaccuracies in things like the dates and the exact amounts which we used. Our next disputes were for things like "lien never filed on such and such date" or "lien never filed for such and such amount." (But only one reason at a time so that the next reason can be used for the next dispute if necessary.) The idea was to get them into dispute status (without being labeled frivolous) with the hope that every now and then something will fall through the cracks. One at a time, over a period of about 4-5 months, the two on EQ dropped off. EX "verified" both. TU was not showing the liens as "released". So, we decided to try disputing both at once online one more time in June on TU only using the reason "liens have been released, please delete." 30 days went by and they did, both of them. Miracle! I have a theory about this which may or may not be of any value. I think there is a dynamic that if a lien has been paid and released, the courthouse here isn't as likely to verify (they may even actually request the deletion). But I think the "not mine" makes them feel like they have to justify the fact that they did correctly place the lien there in the first place. This is only a theory on my part, I have nothing to back it up. (For this reason, it MIGHT be in your best interest to provide the paperwork to the courthouse that shows the one lien has been paid and released, if that is the only way they can get the info. If it was mine, I probably would do so after attempting one round of disputes first.) We also tried the "liens filed in error/withdrawn" which was an option with one CRA, maybe EX, and I don't believe there was any positive outcome from it. A word of caution is in order about using the "liens have been released, please delete" with TU. By doing this, you are, in effect, acknowledging them as yours. We did it because we felt like we were pretty much out of options. We have found EX to be the worst at not wanting to re-investigate something they have already marked as verified. We've gotten the liens into dispute status with them twice and are planning at this point to wait until CHOD to try one more time. The two on EX are the only ones still left. We're going to use the info from this thread http://consumers.creditnet.com/straighttalk/board/showthread.php?s=&postid=214820#post214820 in the next (and hopefully last) disputes. One other point, we did the "not mine" and "released" disputes online. The "amount" or "date" disputes were done CRRR. I hope others with some experience in dealing with state tax liens will jump in here too. It would be good for you to have some other perspectives and other experiences which may differ from ours. By the way, I do not have any experience with getting unpaid liens deleted. There are probably others who have been able to and I hope they will advise you in that regard as well. We feel strongly about paying what we legitimately owe, so our experience comes from that perspective. But we feel just as strongly that to be "punished" for 7 years with "major derogatories" in one's credit score after fulfilling one's obligations is overly harsh and quite simply inappropriate. Therefore we will continue to do whatever we can to get rid of the 2 remaining liens. Please use our experiences and perspectives as you see fit to help you make your decisions about how to proceed with your liens. (The question about civil claim judgements is one I am unable to answer, I just have no experience in that arena.) DemPooches
Thank you so much Dempooches for sharing your experiences. Anything is worth a try. I agree in paying what I owe too and intend on paying the debt I just would like to get it off my CR. Maybe I could negotiate with them for payment. I would like to do that as a last resort because I would think it would be easier to validate. Anyway thanks again for your information and good luck on getting the other two off. Thanks again, Andra
Good advice! re the "civil claim jusgments" - great reason for a dispute like "I have never had a civil claim judgment." Say as little as possible - don't elaborate and never send a CRA documents to prove anything - if they ask, tell them that is not your job, it is theirs.
